my engagement in conversation with issues and concerns related to my vocation as a seminary lecturer. Opinions expressed in this blog are strictly my personal views and do not represent the official position of the seminary

Saturday, 25 August 2007

Day 25 From the 40-day Fast and Prayer Booklet

Today is Day 35 accodring to the NECF 40-Day Fast and Pray Booklet. Since it has something to do with theological education, perhaps it is good to reflect on what has been written by Rev Loh Soon Choy, a dear friend and senior academician at Malaysia Bible Seminari:

"What has been happening in Afghanistan, the Middle East and elsewhere since the infamous September 11 bombing of the Twin Towers in New York seems to have hardened further the perception that whether in Christendom or in Islam, “theologians” are dangerous or irrelevant.

"In actual fact, such events could be used to demonstrate the opposite claim: the very failure to critically reflect and theologise properly, leading to the possibility of not only ultra-fundamental Islamic groups like the Talibans or Al-Qaeda, but also the ultra-right wing, Biblethumping “evangelicals” who have been nicknamed “Christian Talibans”.

"At another level, without theological reflection, we can see that if there are some Muslims who are blindly pro-Arab and all things Arab, there are also some Christians who are blindly pro-Israel and all things Jewish. While there is more unity or tolerance among churches now, as among the major seminaries, there are continuing tensions between Church and Seminary. For the Seminary to follow the dictates of the Church uncritically is to forfeit its intellectual and prophetic witness to the sanctity and unity of all truth. Yet not to relate closely to the Church makes the Seminary an irrelevant ivory tower without a pastoral base.

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About Me

I am a Christ-follower by calling, a Lecturer in New Testament Studies and Assistant Director of Postgraduate Studies at Seminari Theoloji Malaysia by vocation, and a lover of the New Testament by passion. I am also an ordained minister of the Evangelical Free Church of Malaysia.